REGINA – Saskatchewan’s government-owned power utility is set to launch its flagship carbon-capture-and-storage project. While its proponents say the project represents a way to burn coal more efficiently with less greenhouse gas, critics argue carbon capture simply enables the status quo and does little to mitigate the damage caused by carbon emissions.

CALGARY – Statoil has put its Corner oilsands project on hold for at least three years as it grapples with rising costs. “Market access issues also play a role — including limited pipeline access which weighs on prices for Alberta oil, squeezing margins and making it difficult for sustainable financial returns.”

NEW YORK – Thousands of protesters converged on lower Manhattan in a “flood Wall Street” action, with a rallying cry to “stop capitalism”. At the same time, executives from some of the most successful companies on Earth pledged to lead the way to a low-carbon future.

Legendary activist David Suzuki has recruited an Obama strategist, Neil Young and Margaret Atwood to launch a national effort to push for the protection of a healthy environment in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

MANILA, Philippines – Torrential monsoon rains worsened by a tropical storm flooded large swathes of the Philippine capital and nearby provinces Friday, leaving at least three people dead and displacing tens of thousands just days after the region was drenched by a typhoon.

While this summer may have felt like fall across much of the eastern half of the U.S., worldwide the overall picture was a warm one. This August was the warmest August on record globally, according to newly released NASA temperature data, while the summer tied for the fourth warmest.

The World’s 1st electric racing series was held Saturday in Beijing. Sylvain Filippi, Virgin’s head technology officer and an electric car race pioneer, says the only thing holding back Formula E cars from being as fast as their Formula One cousins (the two race series are linked) is the power supply.

There are ample grounds for pessimism as preparations begin for the September 23 UN summit on climate change, being held in New York City. But that doesn’t make it any less urgent for negotiators trying to keep the world from warming more than 2 degrees Celsius, that elusive diplomatic grail.

The northern Great Plains doesn’t attract much attention when it comes to climate change. It’s not besieged by rising seas like the East Coast or threatened by prolonged drought and wildfires like the far West. Webbed with rivers, the region is the heart of North America’s crop production, and its problem is that it’s getting wetter.

There are no cargo airships flying into northern Manitoba these days. Indeed, there are no cargo airships of any kind currently flying here. But there is a research entity and a for-profit company called Buoyant Aircraft Systems International (BASI) that is developing airship technologies.

The invitation has been circulating for months: If you want to goad global leaders to slow Earth’s climate changes, vote with your feet Sept. 21 in New York City. Notably, the invitation to the People’s Climate March is an open one.

Fair trade coffee and hybrid cars don’t solve our environmental and social ills. But they do shift responsibility for big problems to consumers, two researchers argue–leaving businesses and politicians a free pass.

CALGARY – For the mayor of North Bay, Ont., it’s all about protecting the city’s sole source of drinking water from a pipeline spill. When TransCanada Corp. files a regulatory application later this month for its $12-billion Energy East pipeline, Al McDonald says he’ll be looking for assurances that Trout Lake, and the creeks that feed into it, won’t be harmed by an oil spill.

The death toll from the heaviest rain to fall on Kashmir in 50 years rose to more than 400 on Tuesday. An official at Pakistan’s State Disaster Management Authority, said the volume of rainfall had rendered contingency plans useless. He said the district of Haveli had received 400 millimeters (15.75 inches) of rain in a day, which had “no parallel in the past 50 years”.

In the past decade high oil prices have made the oil sands profitable to exploit. But the oil industry, whose reputation for protecting the environment is already poor, has come under pressure to find more efficient and cleaner ways to extract the oil. The results of that innovation are now starting to be deployed.

UXBRIDGE, ON – The world’s last remaining forest wilderness is rapidly being lost – and much of this is taking place in Canada, not in Brazil or Indonesia where deforestation has so far made the headlines.

The US federal government has quietly approved major tar sands transportation projects with unstudied environmental effects — managing to circumvent the executive branch’s impact analysis that paralyzed development of the Keystone XL pipeline and bolstered activists’ claims that the project is dangerous and damaging to the environment.

The weekend before the U.N. Climate Summit, the rank-and-file are descending upon New York City to demand action in the People’s Climate March, to be held on Sunday, September 21. Foremost among them will be Native activists standing side-by-side with environmentalists and others interested in keeping Mother Earth habitable. According to some of the activists on the ground, the climate march is shaping up to be the largest yet.

In a widely publicized commentary in Nature this summer, aquatic ecologist Wendy Palen and seven colleagues were sharply critical of the way that Canada and the United States have gone about developing Alberta’s vast tar sands deposits and the extensive infrastructure of pipelines and rail networks needed to transport those fossil fuels to market.

WINNIPEG – A rainfall flood watch has been issued for the southwest Assiniboine River, provincial officials warned. Water levels on the Assiniboine and Souris rivers are rising due to heavy rainfall. The two rivers got between 280 to 300 per cent more precipitation than normal from Aug. 19 to Sept 1.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government has set aside $22.7 million for an advertising blitz this year to promote oil and Canada’s other natural resources in the United States, Europe and Asia. But scientists and environmental groups say the advertising message is misleading its target audience about the Canadian government’s failure to clean up the oil sands, Canada’s fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions.

WINNIPEG – Members of UMSU and University of Winnipeg Students’ Association (UWSA) will vote this upcoming fall term on the universal bus pass (U-Pass) that could give post-secondary students access to more affordable transportation at reduced rates starting in the fall 2015 term.

Winnipeg’s Aug. 21 rainstorm was about a 10-year event according to analysis produced by the city. That analysis was based on a 24-hour period. However, this was actually a once in 100-year storm if you consider the short time period in which the precipitation was delivered.